A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ

IT’S ALL TAYLOR’S FAULT

It’s an exciting time of year if you are a sports fan - especially a football fan.  We are just over a week away from the Super Bowl, where San Francisco will compete with Kansas City for the National title. Now, I have not watched a single football game this year, and don’t have any immediate plans to watch the Super Bowl. However, watching football fans this year has been an interesting case study of human behavior.

First, sports have been around for a long time. There are cave paintings from 15,300 years ago depicting running and wrestling in front of spectators. Cave paintings in Egypt provide evidence of swimming and archery being a sport around 10,000 BCE. Cave paintings in Mongolia that date back to 7000 BCE show wrestling matches surrounded by crowds. Sports have been a big part of our world for a very long time.

Second, I appreciate sports fans. They find teams they identify with and are committed. Perhaps it’s because they grew up in or currently live in the city in which the team plays. Perhaps it’s because it’s the college team of their alma mater. Maybe it’s a connection to a coach, a player, or the love of the underdog. Whatever it may be, a true fan is all in.

Third, anytime a group of individuals set out to accomplish something as a team or a group, I can get behind that. Team activities or team sports provide incredible lessons for all of us. It takes leadership, commitment, mentorship, humility, loyalty, and strategy to win in team sports. 

It’s been interesting to watch the last few weeks of the NFL playoffs play out. When their team wins, the fans feel that win. They internalize it and act like winners. When their team loses, the fans feel that loss. They internalize it and act like losers.

How do winners act? Well, there are many ways that winning affects people. Some positive and some negative. Just watch the sports news or scroll social media the day after a big game. The same can be true with losing. My parent’s used to tell us not to be “sore losers.”  By definition, a sore loser is someone who is “angered, irritated, or annoyed” when they do not win. Interesting, I may stand as guilty on that one. My days of being irritated or annoyed if I lose a game of Monopoly are not over. The annoyance is real. Ask my family. However what we often see is that annoyance can easily turn into blame. 

It’s easy to slide into finding reasons, explaining away, or blaming others for our losses. 

Enter the 2023 NFL playoffs. I’ve never seen so much blame being tossed about when the teams we have supported lost. This year’s favorite blame subject of choice? Taylor Swift. Now, I am neither a Taylor Swift fan or a Chief’s fan. Remember, I haven’t watched a football game all year (and to be honest, I don’t think I watched one last year or the year before that.) However, it would seem that every team in the playoffs - and even leading up to the playoffs - that lost to the Chiefs, didn’t lose because they got outplayed, or got beat, or didn’t perform. They lost because of Taylor Swift. They lost because clearly the NFL wanted her to be at the Super Bowl. They lost because the referees made the calls to ensure the Chiefs beat Miami, and Buffalo, and Baltimore. Because of course, the NFL wanted Taylor Swift in the box at the big game. Or at least that’s what the fans of the losing teams would have you believe. 

As ridiculous as this may seem, it’s real life for many fans. You’ve seen it play out on social media, and tv, and radio, and sports news. But this is not unlike any natural human reaction to loss. Think about the last time you lost or failed at anything. How often do we find ourselves blaming something or someone else?

Since the first days of sporting events down to last weekend, and from the very first business failures down to the latest implosions, when things go wrong, the fingers go pointing. Human inclination is to find reasons as to why we underperform. We don’t naturally look at our own performance, our execution of our playbook, our speed of reaction and response, our decision making accuracy, or our focus and energy. 

At the end of the day choosing blame gives away our control, our power, our agency, and our future. So, fans of the losing team have in essence are giving Taylor Swift their control and power. Taylor doesn’t need anyone else’s power. She has that department nailed down. In our business, when things don’t go as planned, or even when we fail, own the failure. It’s not the other team. It’s not the climate. It’s not the referee. It’s certainly not someone’s girlfriend sitting on the sidelines. Just own it.

Chris Suarez